At the age of 18 Samuel Brownridge was identified by two bystanders as the gunman who killed Darryle Admas in Queen, New York in 1994 execution-style murder.
Brownridge was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison the following year. However, Brownridge has always maintained his innocence. The Queen County District Attorney Office has formed a Conviction Integrity Unit agreed in late June to overturn his conviction determining he is “an innocent man.”
District Attorney Melinda Katz said Brownridge’s conviction was solely based on two unreliable eyewitness testimony along with no physical evidence that explicitly proved he was the murder.
“I don’t think one who has never been incarcerated knows how it feels to be locked up, especially when they are innocent. I feel that law enforcement had the opportunity to make this right years ago,” Brownridge said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Brownridge “consistently asserted his innocence of the murder and has claimed that he was at home with his girlfriend and child at the time of the shooting.”
Brownridge who’s now 45 served the minimum 25 years of his sentence in March 2019. He was released on lifetime parole while still fighting for justice.
“While Samuel Brownridge is deeply grateful for the unwavering dedication of his advocates and supporters during this long struggle … there is nothing that will restore the 25 years of Sam’s life that were taken from him as a result of deep, fundamental flaws in our criminal justice system,” his attorney Donna Aldea said in a statement.
“I sit down sometimes and say to myself, why me? My twenties, thirties, and half of my forties are gone,” said Brownridge. “I sat in a jail cell every night waiting for this day, while others went home to their families, knowing that the system failed and law enforcement did not do what they could to free an innocent man.”
In attempts to clear Brownridge’s name, Aldea presented prosecutors with the recanted testimony from one of the witnesses who had “obvious intellectual impairments” and “gave varying and implausible accounts of what he saw on the night of the murder.” Along with evidence that proved Garfield Brown was the actual shooter, prosecutors said.
“Eyewitness misidentification is a leading cause of wrongful conviction, and the prior misidentification of two men in photo arrays certainly raises questions as to the reliability of the identification procedures used in this case,” director of the Conviction Integrity Unit Bryce Benjet said.
Prosecutors said Brown resembled an eyewitness’ description of the gunman as a man in his mid-20s with a short fade haircut and Brownridge didn’t have his hair short on the sides at the time of the shooting.
“Taken together, this new evidence demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Brownridge did not murder Darryle Adams,” prosecutors said. “This evidence of innocence requires that Mr. Brownridge’s conviction be vacated and the indictment be dismissed.”
“To many of you, this may look like a victory, but…I cannot help but see all that I lost. But I also see hope. Hope for my future. Hope for my family. And hope for reform,” said Brownridge.
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